B.C. Liberal government halted drug-safety research, lawsuit claims

Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun05.06.2013

The B.C. Liberals, which received “major” political donations from pharmaceutical companies, suddenly halted drug-safety research that could have meant big financial loses for drug companies, alleges a new lawsuit filed Monday against the provincial government.

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The B.C. Liberals, which received “major” political donations from pharmaceutical companies, suddenly halted drug-safety research that could have meant big financial losses for drug companies, alleges a new lawsuit filed Monday against the provincial government.

The allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court in Victoria by William (Bill) Warburton – the fifth person to sue the Ministry of Health over a scandal in its pharmaceutical services division. Last year, seven people lost their jobs and several researchers – including Warburton – lost access to key health data, which was used to investigate possible harmful side-effects from some prescription drugs.

Four of those fired health employees – including Warburton’s wife, Rebecca – have filed wrongful-dismissal lawsuits. Two union employees have filed grievances. The seventh person, a PhD co-op student who was fired three days before his work contract ended, was found dead in December.

The ministry has released few details about its investigation. In interviews before the election campaign began, Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said she found the case “troubling” due to allegations of inappropriate sharing of data and said the RCMP had been notified.

Bill Warburton’s lawsuit goes further than the other four in alleging a link between powerful pharmaceutical companies and the termination of the employees.

“Warburton’s research ... included investigation of harmful side-effects, including mortality, and risk assessment of drugs purchased by the Province through its programs, and had the potential of disrupting financially significant payments to large pharmaceutical companies,” says the lawsuit.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

“The Liberal Party was receiving significant contributions from these drug companies, and the Province was eliminating drug safety programs that could cause restrictions on sales of the products of these drug companies ... and these actions includ[ed] ending drug analysis programs such as that of Dr. Warburton and of the Therapeutics Initiative at the University of British Columbia.”

The NDP has made the Therapeutics Initiative an election issue, by making a campaign promise to bring back the drug-review agency if elected to form government.

In court documents filed in response to the other four wrongful-dismissal lawsuits, the ministry has alleged the drug researchers — including Warburton and his wife Rebecca, the former co-director of research and evidence development at the ministry’s pharmaceutical services division — had inappropriately shared data. There has been no public indication the data included the names of any patients.

The province began its investigation in March 2012, and later in the year notified Warburton that his access to ministry data was revoked. Warburton, a health economist, had signed a contract to access the data to study several outcomes, including the “impact of atypical anti-psychotic medications on patient health outcomes.”

He claimed the ministry’s investigation was “flawed” and conducted by “inexperienced investigators,” and that press releases issued by the ministry about the scandal were defamatory.

“The Province’s acts against Dr Warburton are part of a bad faith program by the Defendants to end the investigation of harmful effects of drugs which risk leading to diminishing payments to their political contributors, and constitute misfeasance in public office as the Defendants were aware that their deliberate acts against Dr. Warburton were illegal and would likely harm him,” the document says.

B.C. Liberal government halted drug-safety research, lawsuit claims

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